


The Greatest and Best Song in the World

by gollumgollum



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-23
Updated: 2011-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-27 23:10:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/301074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gollumgollum/pseuds/gollumgollum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur and Eames do a karaoke duet. It is not a song Ariadne would have ever guessed they'd sing. It is, in fact, the greatest and best song in the world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Greatest and Best Song in the World

**Author's Note:**

> Written in response to [this prompt](http://community.livejournal.com/inception_kink/13659.html?thread=30241883#t30863195). Baby's first Inception fic, oh those many months ago. Song and video can be found here: [Tribute (YouTube)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4an3rpucSos)

They are all very, very drunk.

Yusuf started them on this karaoke kick; one night in the middle of a rough job he'd declared that he was choosing where they were going to dinner, and they'd all found themselves crammed into a private booth together eating sushi and drinking sake and slowly starting to unwind until the sushi was done. At that point the plates were cleared and Eames started to order beer by the bucket as Yusuf passed out binders full of songs. "If I'm going to do this, mate, I'm going to be drunk," Eames had said, and that seemed to be everyone else's cue to get drunk and cut loose. Ever since, when the job gets to be too much or they need to go out and celebrate after or--in one memorable instance--if it's someone's birthday, they find the nearest private room karaoke and sing themselves silly.

Cobb tends to sing safe songs, usually the Beatles; Yusuf has an impressive command of J-pop and sings songs Ariadne's never heard before but then hums for days after, and every now and again he throws in a Shonen Knife song just for her. Eames sings everything from Sinatra to the Rolling Stones, slipping into Ol' Blue Eyes as though he was born to wear a fedora or swaggering like Jagger and making ridiculous pouty-lipped faces that only make him even more attractive. Arthur sings Gaga and Madonna without an ounce of irony, and sometimes, squeezed between Yusuf and Eames, she finds herself wondering what his life would have been had it gone down an entirely different path, imagines him dancing with abandon in some club with Eames.

Ariadne is the newest to karaoke, and she's learned that 70s and 80s songs are the easiest fun, meaning that if nothing else she's always got Journey and Bon Jovi as her fallbacks. She's branching out, though, trying to get better, and she finds herself downloading things onto her iPod and humming along with the thought of singing them at their next karaoke outing.

Which would be tonight.

Ariadne sits down to applause and hooting from the boys, blushing a bit; she'd tried out Sinatra for the first time tonight, finding her way through "I Get a Kick Out of You." It was a little higher pitched than she would have liked, but manageable, and Arthur had given her one of his rare dimpled grins when the song title came up, so she's counting it as a success. "That was fantastic," Yusuf says as he slides into the booth next to her.

"It was a little too high," she confesses, fingers twisting in her napkin and blushing again.

Yusuf nods, not denying it but not judging, either. "Next time we'll turn it down a bit."

"You can do that?" she asks, and he smiles.

"It's karaoke," he says, almost reverently. "You can do anything."

She grins and orders another beer, then looks up to see Eames and Arthur both standing in front of their table, Eames smirking and Arthur looking completely sober and straight-faced in that way that means that he is very, very amused. Ariadne missed the title screen in the shuffle, so she has absolutely no idea what she's in for--a power ballad? That Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow song? Whatever it is, the look on Arthur's and Eames's faces makes her think it's going to be very ridiculous and very earnest and--at least she hopes, because Ariadne really adores the whatever-it-is that is Arthur and Eames--very schmoopy and heartfelt.

She doesn't recognize the opening bars of the song, but Eames gets very solemn, pulling himself up to his full height, and says, "This is the greatest and best song in the world... Tribute."

Cobb snickers, Yusuf whoops, and Arthur suppresses a smile as Eames continues. "Long time ago, me and my brother Arthur here," Arthur inclines his head back at him as if to say _Why, thank you, Mr. Eames,_ "we was hitchhikin' down a long and lonesome road." Ariadne has never heard this song in her life, and can't place the music--it's just the same guitar riff over and over. She watches, a bewildered smile on her face as Eames goes on, completely deadpan. "All of a sudden, there shined a shiny demon, in the middle of the road. And he said!" Eames lunges forward with the microphone suddenly, pointing it at Yusuf, who doesn't miss a beat as he cackles "Play the best song in the world, or I'll eat your souls!" in a high pitched, nasal voice.

This... may or may not be the greatest and best song in the world, Ariadne thinks, but it's certainly the most ridiculous. Arthur sings the high parts, closing his eyes and looking blissful, and at some point he starts playing air guitar so well that Ariadne realizes that _Arthur actually knows how to play guitar,_ and even stranger, he might actually know how to play _this_ song. Eames is a wonder unto his own right, gyrating and flailing and being just as over-the-top as the song needs, counting along on his fingers when he gets to the "one and one make two, two and one make three" part and hamming it up. And then they get to the part where the demon asks if they are angels (again in Yusuf's nasally voice), and Eames _rips his shirt open,_ and suddenly Ariadne is laughing so hard she can't breathe. To her left, Cobb buries his head in his hands, shoulders shaking, and to her right Yusuf howls, banging his beer bottle on the table.

And Arthur continues to air guitar, Eames continues to gyrate, and Ariadne thinks _I might just die_ as she leans against Yusuf. Arthur actually puts one foot up on the edge of the bench next to Cobb when the electric guitar solo comes up, making what Ariadne has secretly termed his Serious Bidness Face as he air-shreds, and Eames grinds shamelessly against his leg the entire time. They lean in to sing the final chorus into the same microphone, Arthur still wailing away on an imaginary guitar as she and Cobb and Yusuf clap and cheer, and at the very end of the song, at the very end of his ridiculously over-the-top solo Arthur falls backwards into Eames's arms. Eames catches him and rights Arthur just long enough to bend him over again in a big, sloppy wet kiss, Arthur's hands flailing at the tattoos visible beneath Eames's open shirt. It's insane and hilarious and somehow, in some way, _so totally them_ , and Ariadne thinks _suck it, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow._

"Who was that?" she asks Arthur as they slide into the booth, taking Cobb's spot. Yusuf leans across her to fistbump the pair as Eames drapes himself across Arthur's back, sweaty and grinning as he answers before Arthur can.

"That, love, was the genius known as Tenacious D."

"...Like, Jack Black?" she asks incredulously.

"And Kyle Gass," Arthur adds.

Ariadne takes a long drink of her beer. "You guys," she says finally, "are completely ridiculous."

"And amazing!" Yusuf gushes from her other side.

"And amazing," she adds reluctantly, her smile finally slipping free.


End file.
